Life In Metaphor

Life is often expressed metaphorically as a journey from the womb to the tomb. There are the crossroads along the way and at every junction one made decision that pave the destiny of this lifetime. Nevertheless the end is the tomb. The tomb however is not the ultimate end for there is yet another beyond. Because of karmic bondage, one is enslaved to the cycle of rebirth and death for countless times. The Buddha taught the way to free ourselves from this bondage and enter into Nibanna.

Let me relate my life in a metaphor. Life is like taking a long trip home on bumpy road by bus, and home is about a hundred kilometer away. Consider a year to be taken as one kilometer before we continue the journey.

Our bus stopped at the fourth kilometer bus stand where my father got out. My mother and I carried on the journey without him. Finally the bus came to its station at the crossroad. We had to board another bus to continue our journey. Everybody at the station was going home. We did not have the fare as my father left us without any money. Soon my mother befriended a man who gave us the fare. He came on the same bus with us. After a few stops, his mother came aboard. She was unfriendly.

When the bus stopped at the fourteenth kilometer bus stand, I got out and then it went on its way without me. I walked until I came to a bus station at another crossroad. Somebody was kind enough to pay for my fare. I continued my journey. After a few stops Mabel came aboard. It was a brief encounter. She got out at the next bus stand.

There are too many pages to write about the journey. In short at every crossroad I board another bus often sharing time with some who I cared for until one day I found myself traveling alone at dawn and with insufficient fare to move on.

I can never reach home in this lifetime because my home is Nibanna.